I had the same issues. I ended up with some of that cord that has the light wire inside. That works pretty well. I looked and looked and could not find the old style cord that we all used. then, one day i bought new mini-blinds for my childrens rooms and the cords were too long. Presto! that's the stuff. I got a good supply by buying Home Depot mini blinds.

i broke about six cords on my supra with p83 strainer,it drove me mad! no sharp edges and everything in order.bought some covered steel wire from my local drum shop in manchester and hey presto not a problem since!

I've seen that metal snare cord make tiny indentations where it touches a metal shell (yes, through the head), so be wary of that!

Back in the late 'seventies I was gigging the US bases in Germany et al and on one occasion I snapped the snare cord and didn't have any spare (I had a spare snare drum of course: a 2000 so no cord) so the Seabees (who are God's gift to drummers) came up with parachute cord; which, when needed, I have used ever since. Google Skydiving, find a local club, then go and scrounge. If you wrap the threaded rod of the strainer with a couple of turns of PTFE tape (plumbing section of B&Q) it will stop it loosening. I use it on the tension rods where a lock is overkill. I know nothing about Vintage (hence my interest in this site) but having gigged professionally all round the world for nearly forty years I can definitely keep a kit on the road; feel free to ask.

fuzzlove,

You can nylon cord very simular to manufacturers from B+Q in Uk. Its nylon string and is just as good, and you get tonnes of it on a reel!!!!

...or if you would rather spend $5-10 instead of tracking down your local skydiving club, parachute cord (aka paracord) is pretty easy to find online or at military surplus stores.

The stuff has about a billion other uses, too, so if you end up buying 50 yards of paracord, it's not like the leftover 49.9 of 'em will go to waste. ;) I keep a stash on hand for restringing mallet keyboards -- marimba, vibes, xylophone, etc. -- but the thought of using the inner strings for snare cord had never crossed my mind. Seems like it would work well.

Got fed up of worrying about the cord snapping, and also about my acrolite sounding ****e, so I fitted a new P85 strainer and some new soundblaster 20's and now it sounds awesome! Cost an extra £70 to sort it out, but at least I don't have a £200 snare that sounds like crap anymore :)